First responders from the Tampa, Florida area rescued a young driver whose car had slid off the highway into a retention pond.
Nicholas Fry was traveling south down Interstate 75 near Seffner, Florida through a driving rainstorm on Sept. 27, when he lost control of his car and slid off the road.
Fry’s car ended up in a roadside retention pond, nearly completely submerged. Fry got out of the car and climbed onto the roof.
“I’m not hurt or anything, but my car fell completely off the highway. I’m in water right now.”
He definitely didn’t want have to swim through the murky water—which might be home to some sizable alligators.
When he mentioned this to the 911 operator, the operator understood.
“I hope you don’t have to, either. I can’t imagine what’s, you know, in there.”
A witness also called in to report the accident.
“A car just swerved into a ditch and it’s pouring down raining and everybody is driving by because nobody knows that the car’s in the ditch,” she said.
It took units from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and Hillsborough Fire Rescue about 15 minutes to find the submerged car.
The 911 tape reveals the moment when the rescuers arrive—Fry can be heard yelling, “Hey! Over here!”
Sheriff’s deputies first tossed fry a life vest in case the worst should happen. That taken care of, they began to plan how to get him safely off the car without offering him up as dinner to any of the pond’s potential denizens.
Firefighters came up with the best solution—they extended one of their long ladders downward and across the water to the sinking car.
Fry was able to jump across to the ladder, and clambered over to safety.
Fry’s car was rescued, as well—though it was quite a bit worse off than he was—by a team of divers from the Sheriff’s Office.
Hillsborough County Battalion Chief Ronnie Johnson said that Fry did exactly the right thing to get out of the sinking car as quickly as possible.
While Fry might have faced the possibility of meeting an alligator, the possibility of drowning had he stayed in the car was a lot more likely.
In fact, Chief Johnson recommends that everyone carry a special utility tool with a razor knife to cut through seatbelts and a hard end to shatter a car window.
“It’s a window punch/seat belt cutter,“ Johnson told Fox News. ”It would definitely work in any situation where you would need to relieve yourself and exit the vehicle.”
Chief Johnson said that most hardware stores would carry such a tool.
